<p>My son was accepted with a full tuition merit scholarshiop to a good, nationally known and ranked, public school. Unfortunately it's not his first choice. His first choice school also offered him a merit scholarship of a sizeable amount but not full tuition. This school is private but is ranked lower than the first one by US News..</p>
<p>As family we do not qualify for finaid and I don't want to have him take out loans... I promised him that I'll look into getting the 'dream school' give him a higher scholarship amount but I'm not sure how to go about approaching this... </p>
<p>Any ideas? Do you just call the school and ask them for a full scholarship using the first school as leverage and telling them how much my son wants to study there?</p>
<p>Your son should try…when this happened with our daughter, some schools would NOT even discuss their financial aid awards…and they would NOT change them. </p>
<p>You can ask…but the bottom line is merit money is the school’s money…and they can dole it out as they see fit. Your son should say that this is his number ONE choice but that he cannot attend unless the money is a bit better.</p>
<p>How much are you hoping to get? Are you instate for Pitt? If so, don’t expect the Emerson to give you full tuition which is likely double the cost.</p>
<p>We are hoping for an additional 14K per year…</p>
<p>He is in at Temple with full tuition… The school he wants to go to is Pace…</p>
<p>He has been admitted to Emerson with scholarship as well as well as Pitt… I like both Pace and Temple but studing free did it for me… Now I have to keep my promise to him and look if Pace will sweeten the offer…</p>
<p>How much are you hoping to get? Is the public university instate for you? If so, don’t expect the private university to give you full tuition which is likely double the cost.</p>
<p>True…and actually the difference between instate public tuition and private can be triple the cost. Yikes! </p>
<p>Look at the preferred school’s scholarship webpage. Do they prominently list scholarships and suggest that they award a lot of money for high stats? Or is it a school that tends to give “token” $10k merit scholarships to a bunch of kids (gimmicky trick that some privates do…raise tuition and then give out a bunch of similarly-sized scholarships). </p>
<p>You can certainly ask, but keep in mind that the higher ranked school may have resources that the lower ranked private may not have. I’ve noticed that there are some privates that do not award more than a set amount of merit dollars to anyone.</p>
<p>P.S. I was commenting on acceptances you posted on other threads. Did your son also get accepted to Pitt and Emerson?</p>
<p>Temple is a fine school. If you are instate for Temple, it is a huge bargain…even without a scholarship.</p>
<p>I seriously doubt that Pace will match an offer from Temple.</p>
<p>Pace is a private university. They have limited resources…but go ahead and ask. I just wouldn’t getting hopes up too high. $14,000 of additional merit probably equals what they have already given your son…or comes close. That is a huge amount of additional free money to be requesting.</p>
<p>He was already given 21,500 from Pace and I realize that asking for 14K more is a lot to ask… As I said, I promised him that I will try and I was just looking for some guidance as to how to go about it…</p>
<p>Yes, he is already accepted to Emerson with Dean’s scholarship, PITT (waiting to hear for scholarship) and a couple of other schools with merit scholarships… Temple is the only scholl thus far which offered full tuition.</p>
<p>What discussion did you have about financing college BEFORE your son applied? Were you prepared to pay the cost of attending any of these colleges, or did you tell your son that he had to choose the college that would have the least amount of out of pocket costs for the parents? If following the money was a criteria from the get go, then I agree, the out of pocket costs for you need to be considered.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, if you have just changed your mind about paying for these other schools since that full tuition offer came, I’m not so sure I agree. </p>
<p>I know you want your son to be debt free, but taking the Direct Loan of $5500 would get him over 1/3rd of the way to paying for Pace.</p>
<p>The bigger question for me…why is Pace his top choice?</p>
<p>Part of the challenge that you are going to face is that Pace is a private school with a tuition price tag of 35k/year, where Temple is a public school with a price tag of 13,596 IS/23,422 OOS. Pace is not going to care that Temple gave you a full tuition scholarship so you really have no “leverage” here. They will care if you received a full tuition scholarship from a peer or better school. Did you use the school’s merit scholarship calculator? Was your son’s scholarship in line with what the school said that you would be eligible to receive?</p>
<p>The question that you have to ask is if Pace is ‘worth’ 14k more to you (because at the end of the day, you will most likely be paying this money). Remember that you are first in line when it comes to paying for your child’s education. IF you do not feel that Pace is “worth” 14k more, why should other people’s parents (the source for the merit money as it comes through the generosity of other people’s parents who have given to the school)?</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids: His major is Communications and yes, we are instate</p>
<p>@thumper1: We had discussed cost of education from the beginning. We expected scholarships but not full rides… He wanted to go to Pace first because it’s in NYC and second because of the internship opportunities that the school provides.</p>
<p>@sybbie719: I understand what you say but I don’t 100% agree. It’s not about “worth” the additional 14K. For me as a parent is about the opportunities that my son will get upon graducation and that depends on both the quality of education as well as his own abilities. In the current econonic environment having no debt (and that applies to everything, not only school) is the most important thing…</p>
<p>I am actually interested in the original question. How would you approach a school to ask for additional aid? Email, call? Should you be specific about how much more would do it for you?</p>
<p>If your son has already received $ 21k from pace n $22k from temple I don’t think Pace is going to budge. You should e-mail the financial aid office to request a review of the scholarship. If you can include the scholarship offer from Temple</p>
<p>What great opportunities are you looking for your son to have coming out of Pace?</p>
<p>I don’t think that they got $22k from Temple. They’re instate for Temple, so they probably got about $13k-14k per year. </p>
<p>That said, I agree that Pace won’t likely increase its offer since Temple’s actual offer is for much less money. The request would mean another $60k from Pace. (BTW…do any of these offers increase as tuition increases??)</p>
<p>As for contacting the school. I don’t think having the parent contact about a merit offer is a good idea. For purely FA offers, it can make sense since the family finances are discussed. For merit, I think the student should politely contact the school in writing.</p>
<p>I agree fully with the suggestion of having the student, and not the parent, call or write requesting reconsideration of merit aid. As an employee of a university, trust me that schools get very tired of fielding calls from parents who want to “fix” everything for their sons/daughters. I encourage the OP to look at this as an opportunity for their son to practice self-advocacy skills :)</p>
<p>Two year old information, but d was accepted to Pace (commercial dance/musical theatre) 2 years ago. She was awarded the honors college scholarship and an additional award. As the winter went on, Pace continued to increase their merit offers, adding a “Pace Opportunity Grant” and some other awards (forget the names…). These letters just sort of showed up over the winter (she did not ask for a review/increase, although she did send them a copy of her letter when she became a National Merit Finalist…Pace didn’t have a specific NM scholarship, but perhaps this led to their financial wooing?)</p>
<p>In the end, she chose to attend another school, where she had won a competitive full ride, and is very happy to have made that choice. Although she adored Pace and the city, she is very grateful for the opportunity to study without worrying about loans hanging over her future head. </p>
<p>So…all things considered, at least 2 years ago, there was still some financial “wiggle room” from Pace…then again, the opportunity to attend another school debt free was very important in her decision process.</p>
<p>Best to you and your kiddo as you work to find the best fit – both academically and financially!</p>
<p>First of all congratulations. Your son has done well. Yes, it is possible that Pace or another school will come up with more money if you talk the admissions people. It’ is also possible that they will not. This is an individual situation that can vary from school to school. My son did get an increase in his merit upon such discussion, from a private LAC, but it is a different school, different time, different amount, different student–whole different student. I know kids with sterling resumes who did not get a dime more from schools when one would have thought there would be some wiggle room. </p>
<p>I would discuss it with admissions but not push it to an ultimatium because your son still has plenty of time to make his decision, and other packages may be coming. My son did not get all of his offers untill the 11th hour even though he was accepted to some schools EA and on a rolling basis and so had the admissions offers in hand with some scholarships. </p>
<p>Do check out the various schools too, and see whether Pace or any other school has any distinct advantage over the others. Frankly, I think Temple is a great school, and that your son can do very well there. Unless there is some specific program that he is eyeing at Pace, or he feels this is exactly the school he wants, I wouldn’t be anxious to pay more for Pace over Temple.</p>